CD-ROM technology compresses vast amounts of information onto a single disk. For example, tens of thousands of pages devoted to materials as diverse as the collected works of Shakespeare and the technical specifications for nuclear reactors can be co-located on a single CD-ROM structure. By the end of the decade, the fiber-optic telecommunications infrastructure will make even this enormous amount of information on compact discs seem negligible, as tele-computers in an estimated 40 million homes will be linked to mainframe data bases. Thus, there exists unparalleled access to information in our society.
However, information by itself does not impart knowledge. Rather, knowledge requires an active learner who discovers patterns of meaning, understands contexts, is alert to differences, and who can generalize, predict, evaluate and, ultimately, form and defend opinions. For example, instant access to every occurrence of the word nature in the works of Shakespeare serves little purpose if one cannot read King Lear and see that a storm on a heath, a disturbance in nature, can mirror the turbulence of a man's soul. Data alone, no matter how vast or quickly accessed, is not knowledge; and while data-intensive technologies create unquestioned opportunities for learning, they also present a challenge: How can educators best help students convert data into knowledge when the desired skills in critical thinking are apparently in decline and the amount of information available to individuals it exploding and thereby exacerbating the problems of declining skills? This challenge to educators is both familiar and new. As always, the task of an educator is to help students think critically, to reflect, to synthesize, and to communicate. But educators now work in an environment where a learner's inability to convert data to knowledge will increasingly marginalize and overwhelm that learner.
The computer industry has attempted to develop software platforms that assemble this information and present it to users in a meaningful format. However, software vendors have been satisfied to simply present games or raw information. Among the almost 10,000 works available on CD for computer use, one-third are corporate, in-house databases; one-third are library data bases (such as Books in Print) for reference use; and one-third are independently distributed titles comprised mostly of interactive games. A small fraction of this last third is devoted to educational software, and of this even a smaller fraction is dedicated to college-level materials. Although educators appreciate the potential of using computer technology as a learning vehicle, there are few pedagogically sound and sustained strategies for helping adult computer users, whether at a college or professional level, to think critically about and synthesize the vast amounts of information now available at the click of a button.
Conventional approaches to learning may be broken down into two categories: non-interactive and interactive. In a non-interactive approach, the fundamental learning tool is reductive (i.e., the user is simply a passive recipient of whatever analysis or data the instructor deems necessary). One example of such a reductive system is the well-known Cliff Notes series used by students to prepare for exams. In Cliff Notes and other such reference materials, the instructor performs the entire analysis of the text and furnishes the user with the resulting conclusions. Accordingly, the basic feature of these tools is that all analysis and examination of the text and its underlying themes and ideas are performed entirely by an instructor, who then transforms the analysis into mere conclusory statements. Clearly, such an approach offers no formal instruction of the methodology undertaken by the teacher to arrive at the conclusions.
In an interactive approach, the most common instructional formats are query-based and a question and answer dialogue. Though interactive systems are more dynamic than non-interactive arrangements (to the extent that a user can pose questions from a predetermined set, instead of passively receiving all information), interactive systems do not necessarily promote learning; rather, they simply provide a rote retrieval of answers from a preset library based on the specific interrogation provided by the user (i.e., the query or question).
In disciplines such as science, mathematics, and economics, the conventional learning systems (either non-interactive or interactive) are adequate to provide the necessary instruction. The adequacy of such systems is due to the objective nature of the information and knowledge that defines these fields. Since the knowledge itself is rational-based and predicated on facts and physical relationships, learning may be accomplished through an understanding of theorems, postulates, and other objectively-based information that can readily be understood through query-based or question-and-answer formulations. However, in the field of literary composition, in which the material or subject matter is considered entirely subjective and thus open to varying degrees of interpretation and analysis, the need for a learning tool that promotes interrogation and dialogue with the user is most evident. Examples of such fields would include art, philosophy, religion and fiction. Accordingly, a need exists for an interactive learning system that particularly supports literary works.